


Reset

by helsinkibaby



Category: NCIS
Genre: 16.05 spoilers, F/M, Fluff, Het, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-25
Updated: 2018-10-25
Packaged: 2019-08-07 14:45:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16410464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helsinkibaby/pseuds/helsinkibaby
Summary: Ellie’s annual reset is a little different this year.





	Reset

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the scene in 16.05. You can take it as either past or future, I think it works either way!

Though people often don’t quite believe it, Ellie’s mental reset is something that she takes quite seriously. For three days every year, usually a long weekend in late spring or early summer, she goes off the grid completely. She turns off her cell phone, doesn’t turn on her computer or television. For about a month beforehand, she starts stockpiling books, so that by the time the weekend rolls around, she has a stack of books waiting to be read. She goes shopping on the first morning, finds ingredients for all her favourite dishes, all the recipes she’s been meaning to try but just never gets the time to. She spends the three days cooking and baking and reading and she always comes back reset - rested, refreshed, ready to take on the world. 

This year has been different. 

Oh, she’s cooked. And she’s also rested - or at least spent plenty of time in her bedroom. But this is the third morning of her reset and it’s the first morning that she’s actually managed to sit down and crack the spine of one of the books on her to be read pile. And while she’s not complaining about how she’s spent the last two days, there’s something nice, something familiar, about curling up on her couch, surrounded by pillows, a blanket over her knees, nice and snug and lost in the pages, heedless of the world outside. 

She’s making good progress on her book when the outside world comes in, her front door opening and closing firmly as Nick arrives back. She lifts her head from the pages, tucks a bookmark in to hold her place, grins at him. “Good run?” she asks when he’s pulled his ear buds out and he nods as he stretches his arms above his head, using the movement to wipe his forehead. His tank top stretches over his chest, showing off his muscles and Ellie’s not entirely sure it was an accident. 

“Yeah,” he says, turning to the refrigerator and giving Ellie a chance to check out his ass. He takes a bottle of water and chugs half of it in one gulp, turning and facing her and grinning as he sees where her eyes were. “Good book?” 

“Very.” She doesn’t go into details and Nick grins as his eyes roam over her body. 

“Did you miss me?” 

He’s teasing. She teases right back. “Not at all. I had my book.” 

“And my shirt.” His index finger waves in her direction and she bites her lip as she shrugs, refusing to look down at the shirt she’s wearing which is indeed one of his. “You know, I was planning on wearing that today.” 

“I did not know that.” She’s lying, but she doesn’t think he’s going to call her on it. She bats her eyelashes at him anyway, all innocence. “Do you want it back?” 

He narrows his eyes, purses his lips. “I thought you’d never ask.” He drops on the couch beside her then, pulling her legs up first so he can fit underneath them, then letting her legs back fall over his lap as he rests his hand on her knees. He leans in for a kiss, is pretty obviously taken aback as Ellie actually recoils from him. She hasn’t done that in the last two days. In fact, she’s fairly sure she hasn’t done that ever. He frowns, then looks down at himself and realisation dawns. “What, you won’t kiss me when I’m all sweaty and disgusting?” 

Ellie wrinkles her nose. “You do smell pretty ripe.” 

Nick gives a theatrical, long suffering sigh. “The things I do for you.” He goes to stand up but he fakes her out, leans down quickly and covers her body with his, planting a sweaty series of kisses along her cheek. She squirms against him, laughs as she swats at his chest and he’s laughing too as he stands up and makes his way towards the bathroom. 

Halfway there, he turns, lifts an eyebrow. “You going to stay there and read?” he asks. “Because I could use someone to wash my back.” 

Ellie tilts her head, taps one finger against her cheek thoughtfully. “Let me think about it...” 

Nick chuckles again. “You do that,” he says, stripping off his tank top and throwing it in her direction. It misses by a mile which is how she knows he threw it badly on purpose. He turns away, already pulling at his sweatpants and she admires the view once more as she watches him walk away. 

Then she closes her book, lays it down on the coffee table and then follows him into the bathroom. 

This year is a different sort of reset. 

But she thinks she could definitely get used to it.


End file.
